Car stickers threatening to hang Eurocrats circulate in Brussels

EU civil service unions have demanded extra protection from a backlash against eurozone austerity measures after stickers telling officials to "go hang themselves" were circulated by a group of unknown Brussels protesters.

Bruno Waterfield in Brussels

11:42AM BST 03 May 2012

Staff unions have written to Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, after stickers of a hanging official were found with the slogan "Eurocrate, sers-toi de ta cravate" or "Eurocrat, make use of your tie".

Cars with special licence plates for EU officials have been targeted and civil servants commuting to work in Schuman euro quarter of Brussels have been harassed by activists, thought to be anarchists.

"It is now obvious that the next steps will be physical injuries," said the letter from Union Syndicale, Federation of European Civil Servants and Renouveau & Démocratie.

The EU officials have blamed negotiations demanded by national governments to cut some of their legendary perks for "hasty, ill-informed generalisations which can later be easily exploited by populist associations whose only motive is to make the European civil service a scapegoat".